Knitting machine



July 7, 1942.

.L. SELIGMAN 2,289,052

KNITTING MACHINE Filed May 31, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet l swam/M .Zou a!15/7990) July 7, 1942. L. SELIGMAN KNITTING MACHINE Filed May s1, 1940 3Sheets-Sheet 3 SrvucmLo v Lou/La Jeldjmap amt July 7,1942 I KNITTINGMACHINE Louis Seligman, New York, N. Y., assignor to n. Brinton 00.,Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application May31,1940, Serial No. 338,253

4 Claims.

My invention relates to'knitting machines, and it is an object of thesame to provide a circular independent needle machine with means formaking a pattern of pile loops on its face, combined with figures madeby' wrapping needles with pattern yarns, said pattern yarns providingsuchfigures as clocks, spots or vertical stripes in well known manner.

'Another object is to provide improved means for controlling the actionof sinkers in knitting pile or plush fabrics. I

Another object is to provide an improved sinker cam for circularopen-top knitting machines. Referring to the drawings which are made apart of this application and in which similar reference charactersindicate similar parts:

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section of a portion of a Up to recent years alsothe use of needle wrap- I ping devices in circular machines wasunimportant, and the making of plush or pile patterns on such machinesby selectivesinker action is a.

recent development. In the earlier machines which did use the principle.of selective sinker advance to abnormal distances, whether for makingpile patterns or for other purposes, there may have been but littledifliculty in the way of marring of patterns by accidental advance ofnon-selected sinkers or, if they were imperfect, that was accepted as anunavoidable defect.

In recent years there has been a great increase in the number of feedson circular machines.

of the type in question without increase in diameter of the machines,the purpose being to increase the production ofthe machine, and thecircular independent needle knitting machine,

showing my improved construction;

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a known construction:

Fig. 3, a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 looking toward the leit;

Figs. 4 and 5, side elevations of sinkers, illustrating their action onthe two threads which are .fed to the needles;

Fig. 6, an elevation showing the upper ends of the needles in a part ofthe circle and also showing the lower part of an idle wrap finger;

Fig. 7, a vertical section through the needle cylinder and thesinkerbed, and

Fig. 8, a top plan with parts omitted, showing on an enlarged scale thearrangement of the sinkers and parts coacting therewith.

Circular knitting machine having means to produce pile patterns by theuse of sinkers that are selectively advanced by a pattern wheel so as tocause two yarns to be knitted together in loops of equal length for theplain parts of the cloth, and to cause one of said yarns to be drawninto longer loops at the pile portions have long been known, suchmachines being of the general type shown by Holmes Patent No. 1,388,341,

August 23, 1921, modified by the addition thereto of a pattern wheel foradvancing the sinkers selectively as in Ellis Patent No. 697,098 andWest Patent No. 999,074, July 25, 1911. Fig. 2 portrays the essentialparts of such a machine. In that figure, reference character l0indicates one of' a circular series of sinkers which are advanced by acam H having a sinker advancing edge I2.

. In such circular independent needle knitting machines as were in useup to recent years the feeds were few and far apart and the slope bf theneedle and'sinker cams was a gradual one.

cam.

feeds are now crowded together so that a machine of the same diameternow has four or. more times the number of feeds that a machine of thesame diameter would have had only a few years ago. As a necessaryincident to the increase of number of feeds the needle and'sinkercamshave been made much steeper. This caused no particular difiiculty inthe case of the needles but it has caused (or greatly increased) thedim-- culty of making satisfactory clean patterns by selective specialadvance of sinkers, as practiced in making pile patterns, etc. Thatdifficulty is due to the fact that when sinkers, whichmust be free insuch' machines, are suddenly advanced by the steepened sinker advancingcams they acquire such momentum that they are likely to advance to theiroutermost limit of movement inward or forward by reason of inertia, dueto the mere action of the advancing cams, such advance taking placeprior to any action of the pattern means which are intended to controlsuch advance selectively, and which are usually so placed as to give aspecial or abnormal advance to selected sinkers after all sinkers havebeen advanced in the sinker wave by the usual Free sinkers, like ffreeneedles, are such as do not have their movements precisely controlled bytheir cams, but have some additional freedom of movement.

Such undesired or accidental advance is known in the art as firing ofthe sinkerswhich would not be advanced selectively by the pattern means,which is usuallya horizontal wheel with teeth that engage and advanceselected sinkers, and in'the case of patterned pile fabrics it resultsin the formation of pile loops at undesired places in the cloth, thusmarring the pattern and making imperfect cloth. It is a primary objectof my invention to prevent such firing" of sinkers, both when makingplain patterned pile fabrics or the like and also when making clothcomlaid when the sinker is advanced as in Fig. 4 by -a pattern wheel Iso as to form an elongated pile loop of said yarn. The yarn b from feedB at this time lies on the usual supporting edge I! ,of the sinker andis drawn by the adjacent needle to form a loop of the body or backfabric. Fig. 5 shows theposition of a sinker that has been advanced only.by the cam edge l2 bearing against 'an edge I! of the sinker, and notby the pattern wheel, so that both yarns form only body or back fabricloops. The wheel may be cut in any pattern, as at IT, with slots toreceive the rear ends of the sinkers so as not to advance them, whilethe intermediate segments may be roughened, etc., to engage the rearends l8 of the.

sinkers and so to advance them to function as in Fig. 4.

In order that the wheel l4 may be able to advance sinkers beyond theirnormal advanced position at a feed it is necessary that the sinkers befree to advance, 1. e., the space between edges I6 and I9 must be widerthan the cam Ii, as illustrated in Fig. 3 since otherwise they could notbe moved by the selecting wheel. Usually the width of the cam is suchthat the sinkers are free at all positions along the cam. In thepractical use of these machines, which of course run at rather highspeeds, it is found as above stated that there is a strong tendency forall the sinkers to advance as far as permitted by the width of the slotbetween faces l6 and I! (or to fire inward) and when that occurs pileloops of more or less imperfect character are formed at all theaccidentally advanced sinkers, thus spoiling the pattern.

To prevent such accidental advance it has been customary to locate aspring 20 in such a position as to hold all the sinkers back against thelevel edge of the cam just beyond the advancing edge I2, after whichsinkers may be selectively advanced by the wheel without danger 'ofaccldental advance of other sinkers. The spring 20 is mounted inside theneedle circle e on a bracket 2|,on the carrier 2|, and necessarily mustbe II. at 22 at the portion just beyond the advancing edge 12 so that itfills the space between edges l6 and IQ of each sinker and insures thatno sinker will move forward accidentally, due to the movements impartedto it during its advance or for any other reason, and thus cause theformation of undesired pile loops. The warp yarns from wrap fingers orother wrapping means are in no way interfered with, and clean cut pilepatterns are formed in the same length of cloth or in combined patternsof pile loops and needle-wrapping warp yarns.

It will be understood that the widening of the cam portion 22 at theback or outside of the cam ll extends partly beyond the region of theinner end of the cam edge 22 for smooth operation but the only essentialfeature is that it be so formed as to hold all the sinkers back untilthe time when they are passing along the level part 23 of the cam I I,so that they will no longer have a tendency to fire forward or inwardlyof the needle circle. They must of course be free to be selectivelymoved farther in by the wheel at this within the needle circle 0 inorder to be so positioned as to act on the inner ends of the sinkers.But because of the necessity of providing some such means to preventformation of pile loops on undesired sinkers it is impossible to combineneedle-wrapping means, such as the fingers same machine to knit a fabrichaving patterns formed with both wrap yarns and pile loops, whichpatterns may combine both methods of ornamentation in the same patternor may merely have wrap patterns in some parts of the cloth and pilepatterns in other parts, and it consists, as shown in Figs. 1 and 8, inwidening the cam time.

It will be obvious that while this construction is particularly valuablewhere pile loop patterns are to be made on the same machine that makeswrap patterns, either in combined patterns or in any desired sequence,it also provides improved means for knitting pile patterns, such meansbeing simpler and more positive than means heretofore used, and beingless liable to get out of order.

Various changes in the parts shown and described will be obvious tothose skilled in the art and therefore I do not limit myself to thespecific construction and arrangement shown and;

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. In a circular independent needle knitting machine, of the type havinga series of sinkers with opposed edges for engagement by sinker cams, asinker cam generally narrower than the space between said opposed edgesfor advancing sinkers to a predetermined distance and for retractingthem, and means for selectively advancing sinkers of the seriesabnormally after their normal advance, said sinker advancing camincluding an advancing portion so steep as to tend to cause abnormaladvance of sinkers prior to the action of said selecting means, thatimprovement which consists in widening the sinker ac-- tuating cam inthe region of said advancing portion so that it fits closely betweensaid edges and prevents any abnormal advance of sinkers while passingsaid portion.

2. A device as in claim 1, said sinker cam including a level portionfollowing said advancing portion, and said selecting means comprising atoothed wheel whose teeth act selectively to advance sinkers passingalong said level portion.

3. In a knitting machine of the type having a circular series ofindependent needles, means for feeding a plurality of yarns to saidneedles at different levels, a series of sinkers with opposed edges forengagement by sinker cams, said series comprising sinkers each providedwith a conventional yarn supporting edge and a finger extending over apart of said edge, a cam generally narrower than the space between saidopposed edges for advancing sinkers .to a predetermined normal distanceand retracting them, and means for selectively advancing sinkers of theseries abnormally after their normal advance for causing their fingersto engage under one of said yarns to form pile loops thereof, saidsinker cam including an advancing portion so steep as 'to tendto causeabnormal advance of sinkers prior to the action of said selecting means,that improvementwhich consists in widening the sinker actuating cam inthe region of said advancing the region of abnormal advance of selectedsinker-s.

LOUIS SELIGMAN.

